1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fly fishing and more particularly, this invention relates to an improved tool for tying flies.
2. Related Art
Various bobbins exist for tying fishing flies. In order to tie a fishing fly, the bobbin holds a spool of thread with a certain amount of pressure at its hub thus providing tension as the thread is pulled and wound on the fly. Typically, the thread can be silk, nylon or the like for tying a fly head or wool or floss for other desired features of the fly.
Bobbins typically have a pair of flexible arms formed to retain a spool of thread and have a hollow tube or guide projecting forwardly from the juncture of the arms. Thread from the spool is passed through the tube and which is used to feed the thread to a desired location when wrapping feathers, bits of cloth, etc., to secure these items to a hook in a desired manner. To tie the thread off, a knot-positioning tool is used as is known in the art. The thread is then severed, loose ends are trimmed off and the fishing fly is completed. Fish hooks vary in size and knot-positioning tools are used to aid in receipt the eye of each different sized fish hook.
Traditional fly tying bobbins place drag on the spool by using two arms of a springy material (such as metal, plastic, etc.) which place a fixed frictional force against the ends of the spool through a round or cone shaped piece affixed to the end of the arm which fits into the hole which runs through the center of the spool of tying material. The only way the frictional force of the arms may be changed in this design, and thus the tension on the fly tying material, is to remove the spool and physically bend the arms inward or outward to increase or decrease the tension. The only other way to alter tension is to squeeze the spool with the hand to increase tension.
The first method is virtually impossible to accomplish once the tying has begun. The second tends to be extremely awkward. In addition, to remove the spool of material from a traditional bobbin, the arms holding the material must be pulled apart to remove the spool and to replace it with another. This is both inconvenient and slows the tying process considerably.
The problem remains with tying a fly correctly, specifically, holding the spool in a manner to create a desired amount of resistance against the spool (and thus tension in the thread) in order to tie a particular fly feature, such as a tight knot. Tension is not easily controlled using current bobbins and thus the ability to easily tie a fly is difficult. Consequently, there remains a need to improve bobbin designs.
It is an object to improve the field of fly fishing.
It is another object to improve bobbin design for tying a fishing fly.
It is a further object to provide an improved bobbin which can be operated more easily than the prior bobbins.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a bobbin for tying a fishing fly. The bobbin includes a pair of arms connected at respective first ends and spaced at respective second ends, each second end having a generally axially spaced bearing surface configured to receive a hub of a spool such that when so received, the spool is held between the bearing surfaces with a predetermined force. The bobbin further includes a tube for receiving and carrying a thread from the spool and a controller connected to the arms for adjustably controlling the arms in a manner to apply a desired amount of pressure on the hubs of the hubs of the spool. Thus, an increase of pressure decreases ease of rotation of the spool and a decrease of pressure increases ease of rotation of the spool.
The arms can be spring-like and the controller can include a biasing device. In one embodiment, the biasing occurs against the first ends whereas in another embodiment biasing occurs against the second ends. Further, one embodiment depicts first ends relatively fixed to one another whereas another embodiment depicts movable connection.
The biasing device can include a threaded male member and a female threaded member interconnecting the arms in a manner such that threading the female member in one direction with respect to the male member imparts an outward displacing force between the second ends and in another direction imparts an inward displacing force between the second ends. In one embodiment, the arms are connected about a pivot point.
Other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon viewing the drawings and reading the detailed description hereafter.